BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates a water saving toilet, and innovation from multiple sources of inspiration from other inventions and designs. This is recognizing the genius of other products even when they are not recognized in the same way.
The foot pedal was used in most RVs, mobile homes, trailers and boats, but was only used in those areas because of the limited space in the water closets. I am using the foot pedal for sanitary reasons which limits the amount of germs that are passed on to the next person about to use the toilet. The Flap Valve at the bottom of the toilet bowl was used in some RVs and mobile homes, but was also used on trains and planes because the holding tanks for the human waste was directly under the toilets. These flap valves already prove that a very small amount of water was needed as well as a flap to seal the smells from escaping the storage tanks.
The balancing system was from another invention used to catch mice as a mouse trap. Using a 5 gallon bucket, fasten a stick to the lip that is balanced with some peanut butter on the end of the stick. The mice travel out to get the peanut butter and offset the balance of the stick so the mouse falls into the bucket, and the stick resets back up for the next mouse. The concept to build the toilet was great, but the parts didn't exist.
The gate valve that opens and closes with the least amount of force to operate at it's maximum potential of water flow was in the form of a solenoid valve. A electro-magnetic water valve that required electricity to operate. This toilet needed to be completely mechanical so it can be installed into any water closet with enough water pressure to operate. The design and construction of the valve took about a month to make.
Doing more research into toilets to discover that not all toilet seats are the same size as well as the people who use them. Taking the smallest size seats design and a larger size to over lap each other so both toilet seats are accessible for different size people.
The toilet only needed a very small amount of water so the next challenge was the small nozzles around the toilets rim as well as the larger spray pipe in the toilet bowl aiming directly at the flap valve. The original purpose of the larger spray pipe was to clean off the flap valve with every flush as well as push the human waste down the drain. By using a ¼ inch water line around the rim of the toilet to feed the smaller spray nozzles as well as the larger spray pipe worked enough well enough with 30 psi water pressure, and was scaled up to 70 psi before the spray nozzles blew out. The larger nozzle flows more now and has been tested up to 130 psi with no blow outs. This also made another problem for the flap valve that would never close if there was this much water pressure directly pushing the flap valve open, so a twist gear and magnets were built into the main water valve arm so when the flap valve is sprayed fully open, the magnets disengage and the main water valve closes to let the flap valve close and reset back to the resting place, and reconnecting to the magnet for the next flush. The best material was thermoplastic that could be recycled over and over again if the plastic was treated each time. This also makes production faster because the parts of the toilet can be made in less than 1 min. This added an environmentally friendly concept into the construction of this toilet as well as a practical way to keep up with demand.
The average amount of times that a healthy individual uses the toilet is 10 times a day. This varies on age, body weight and eating habits. At least 1 of those bathroom visits will be a bowel movement. For a typical toilet, which most homes and businesses have, use 2 GPF, on average, to flush the human waste. This generates about 20 gallons of water a day per person who use the toilet. When the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet is used, at 0.0625 GPF, the amount of water used, plus the additional flushes for solid human waste, is a little less than a full gallon of water per person, per day. This reduces water consumption by 95% for human waste displacement.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This Efficient Water Conservation Toilet (FIG. 1) has 7 key parts that make this toilet work properly. These parts are; the Duel Toilet Seats, Foot Pedal, Flap Valve, (non-electric) automatic flushing system, the recyclable material that the toilet is made out of, the toilets spray valves and the main water valve. More details of each function and the purpose as to how they work together, to make this toilet an environmentally eco friendly water conservation toilet that can be installed into any bathroom with 35 psi water pressure or more, are presented below.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The Duel Toilet Seats (FIG. 2, FIG. 17, FIG. 18, FIG. 19, FIG. 20) will provide a smaller to larger size person to use this toilet. The larger ring seat is on the bottom and a smaller ring seat fits in the larger seat, while the lid encloses both seats when both seats are down. The smaller hole size is 7 inches wide and 10 inches long by the center dimensions while the larger hole size is 9 inches wide and 14 inches long by the center dimensions. These sizes are most used in toilets today. Under the Toilet seats is a small button that will unlock the automatic flushing system, so the automatic flushing system will only engage when someone is sitting on one the toilet seats. This is to prevent foreign objects from being flushed down the drain. The button will move ⅛th of an inch on the toilet seat side and a full inch on the balancing system side, making the balancing system automatically flush.
The Foot Pedal (FIG. 1, FIG. 2) is designed in a “U” shape in front of the toilet and will reduce the amount of germs that are passed on from one user to the next. As of now most toilets use a button or handle to flush that requires our hand to operate. Washing our hands usually comes after flushing the toilet. The Foot Pedal is operated by stepping down on the pedal with a foot or can be pushed by other means such as a crutch, if the person has leg impairments.
The Flap Valve (FIG. 4, FIG. 9, FIG. 10, FIG. 16) is designed to hold water at the bottom of the toilet bowl to keep any smells from coming back up the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet. The Flap Valve is held in place by the automatic balancing system and a small latch from the foot pedal plus the latch that is activated by the small button under the toilet seats. The Flap Valve is 3½ inches in diameter and opens at a 90 degree angle to be able to flush the human waste.
The non-electric automatic Flushing system (FIG. 9, FIG. 10, FIG. 11, FIG. 12) is a counter balance of 6 ounces of liquid or 300 grams to offset and flush the human waste. This is about a half a pound of weight That is required to flush the toilet. What this does is flush several times if there is a lot of human waste and flush very little if there is a small amount. This toilet will flush as the toilet is needed to get all the waste down to the sewer and was also very important when it came to using such a small amount of water per flush. The toilets that are used now, with a bend in the toilet, make us use 95% of the water to just get everything past the bend in the tradition toilets. More water is required to move the waste farther down the drain pipe that may or may not move the waste as this is unknown by many factors. By opening the flap valve directly into the sewer drain the human waste is leading the water to the sewer or septic tank. The water is pushing the human waste closer to the main sewer pipe or septic tank. The larger spray pipe helps break up the human waste into several sections and allows for the human waste to travel farther after it enters the sewer pipe. Also being a non-electric automatic flushing system will allow this toilet to be installed into any bathroom with 35 psi water pressure or more. The twist spring gear is to pull the main water valve open and allow room for the main water valve to open and stay open while human waste is accumulating into the toilet. The arm that attaches to the balancing system is held by a magnet that will let go when the flap valve is 95% open or more. This will close the main water valve and stop the water from spraying on the flap valve and allow the flap valve to close. When the flap valve and balancing system is pulled back to it's resting position, the magnets in the twist spring gear arm, and will reconnect to be ready to flush again.
Making this toilet out of a recyclable material was to reduce the carbon foot print by offering a discount for returning the toilet back to us. I can take out the balancing system and repair the old or broken parts while the rest of the toilet can be reduced to smaller parts and treated to be made into another new toilet. This will limit the amount of toilets taken to the landfills.
The Toilets spray valves (FIG. 3, FIG. 13, FIG. 14, FIG. 15, FIG. 16) are positioned around the rim of the toilet to activate with the main water valve that opens and closes with the least amount of force at the valves maximum potential of water flow. This also has a larger spray pipe closer to the toilet bowl flap to clean off the flap valve as well as push anything that falls in the toilet down the drain. Another purpose for a direct spray on the flap valve is to open the flap valve to 100%. When the flap valve gets to 95% open of the flaps travel distance the twist spring gear arm will disengage by the magnets and will close the main water valve. The toilets with a bend rely on the suction of the water pressure to pull the human waste while the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet is designed to push the human waste down the drain.
The Main Water Valve (FIG. 5, FIG. 6, FIG. 7, FIG. 8) is a basic gate valve design with magnets to open and close. There are 3 rings of magnets to push and pull the gate open and closed when the top and bottom rings turn together. The magnets on the top ring are in a circle pattern of N,S,N,S,N,S to the bottom of the magnets as the bottom ring of magnets is the opposite as the top is N,S,N,S,N,S. The middle ring of magnets will be in the same pattern of N,S,N,S,N,S on the top and will be opposite on the bottom side of the middle ring of magnets. This will cause the like sides to repel and the opposites to attract. When the top and bottom magnets are twisted the polarities change and this causes the gate to open or close. I left a quarter inch gape in-between the magnets so they never touch from one ring to the other and this also makes it easier to open and close the gate valve. The gate is also wider to allow more water to flow, even though the gate opens a little bit, the volume of water isn't restricted by the gate.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
It is noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
FIG. 1 is perspective view of an Efficient Water Conservation Toilet.
FIG. 2 is the side view, disassembled lid and seats to the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet.
FIG. 3 is a top view showing the locations of the spray nozzles and the larger spray pipe.
FIG. 4 is an x-ray side view of the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet of the foot pedal, flap valve and larger spray pipe.
FIG. 5 is perspective view of the main water valve.
FIG. 6 is the side view of the disassembled magnetic discs.
FIG. 7 is the magnets polarity while in the discs.
FIG. 8 is an x-ray top view of the gate valve where the water travels.
FIG. 9 is perspective view of the balancing system.
FIG. 10 is a side view of the balancing system and the placement in the x-ray view of the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet.
FIG. 11 is an x-ray side view of the mechanics of the foot pedal to the balancing system.
FIG. 12 is the side view of the main valve arm with the twist spring gear and magnets.
FIG. 13 is an x-ray side view of the top rim with ¼ inch pipe and nozzle.
FIG. 14 is a direct view of a spray nozzle.
FIG. 15 is a front view of the larger spray pipe.
FIG. 16 is an x-ray view of the flap valve open and closed with the large spray pipe.
FIG. 17 is perspective of the lid and toilet seats disassembled.
FIG. 18 is a top view of the lid and toilet seats separated.
FIG. 19 is an x-ray side view of the locking rod.
FIG. 20 is a larger x-ray side view of the locking rod.
DETAILED DESCRIPTIONS
Referring first to FIG. 1, the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet is the standard height at 17 inches high from the floor to the rim of the toilet. The Toilet seats and lid add an additional 2 inches in height. The total length of the toilet is 21.5 inches and is smaller than most toilets because the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet doesn't have a water storage tank on the back. The foot pedal is also visible in this figure simulating the U shape around the front of the base of the toilet.
Next, as shown in FIG. 2, the side view of the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet and the different sections of toilet seats and lid. The smaller seat fits perfectly inside the larger seat and has a longer arm from the point of pivot to the larger seat and lid. The lid fits over both seats but rests on the toilet seats.
FIG. 3, is a top view of the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet without the lid and seats to show the locations of the smaller spray nozzles and the location of the larger spray nozzle.
FIG. 4, an x-ray side view of the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet showing the positions of the foot pedal with the pull cable, and the flap valve and the larger spray pipe.
FIG. 5, is perspective view of the main water valve that opens and closes with the least amount of force at the maximum potential for water flow. The wing that is on the bottom magnetic disc prevents the disc from traveling too far and becoming ineffective. The hole over the wing is to connect to the twist spring gear arm with magnet. This part also has a small weight that pulls it closed when the twist spring arm bar magnets have disengaged.
FIG. 6, is a disassembled side view of the magnetic discs and the gate for the valve. As the top and bottom discs are attached, the middle disc will act as a piston moving up or down, depending on the polarities of the magnets. The gape between the magnets is a ¼ inch from the next set of disc magnets so they will slide easier but still have enough power to pull or push the gate open.
FIG. 7, The polarities of the individual magnets within the discs are shown here. As the top and bottom discs turn the polarities change and open or close the gate, depending on the magnets on the inside disc.
FIG. 8, This is an x-ray top view of the gate valve path. The wider path at the middle of the valve will allow more water flow when the gate only opens half way. The volume of water will be the same as if the gate fully opens or not.
FIG. 9, is perspective view of the balancing system. The counter weight is 250 grams on a 4 inch arm. The Flushing arm attaches to the foot pedal arm cable and the main valve arm attaches to the twist gear arm to the main water valve.
FIG. 10, as seen in FIG. 9, the flap valve is on the opposite side of the counter weight so it is held up to the toilet bowl to hold the water. The flap valve flips 90 degrees down into the pocket when flushed. The large spray pipe is also seen in this figure.
FIG. 11, is an x-ray side view of the mechanics of the foot pedal arms and cable. this needed to be a cable to be as least resistant to the balancing system as possible. The cable allows this to also act as a balance to pull the flap valve closed but very little resistance when stepping on it to open the valve. This unlocks the flap valve so the toilet can still be flushed by the foot pedal when there is something in the toilet that doesn't trigger the auto flush, i.e. urine or tissue paper.
FIG. 12, is the twist spring gear arm and magnet assembly attached to the balancing system. The balancing system pulls on the twist spring arm and this will open the main water gate valve. While the main water gate valve is open, the larger water pipe will activate and spray the human waste down the drain as well as clean the flap valve and open the flap valve completely. When the flap valve opens past 95% of its motion, the magnets will disengage and let the twist spring gear go. This will close the main water valve and let the counter weight of the flap valve close and reset the magnets on the twist spring arm back together.
FIG. 13, is a side x-ray view of the rim of the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet to show the smaller spray nozzle inserted into the ¼ inch channel that goes around the rim of the toilet. This also shows the lip over the spray nozzle as well as the spray direction of the water flow.
FIG. 14, is a front view of the rim of the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet to show the area coverage of the water spray nozzle that is under the rim of the toilet.
FIG. 15, is a front side view of the housing and larger spray pipe used to clean off the flap valve. This shows the direction of water flow from that pipe.
FIG. 16, is an x-ray side view of the flap valve open and closed to show the larger spray pipe is directly spraying onto the flap at all times.
FIG. 17, is the lid and both toilet seats as in the order they are to be when installed into the top of the Efficient Water Conservation Toilet.
FIG. 18, is a top view of the lid and both toilet seats to show the connecting pivot points in a line of each of the 3 units.
FIGS. 19 and 20, are x-ray pictures showing the location of the locking arm to the toilet seats. The locking arm will only move an ⅛th of an inch on the toilet seats side while the pivot and lever on the other side moves an inch out of the way to unlock from the balancing system. This lock will hold up to 25 lb at the flap valve before it fails to hold. This is to prevent foreign objects from getting flushed by mistake as well as hold the flap closed from the venturi effect and keeps the seal of the flap while the toilet is not being used.
Patent Application
20200340226
